The streets of Kansas City’s most popular shopping district, the Country Club Plaza, are buzzing with holiday cheer.

The city commissioned local artist and University of Kansas alumnus John Keeling, f’83, to create artwork depicting a winter night at the Plaza. Keeling’s watercolor banners now line the streets in front of the storefronts. His work also appeared on a billboard to promote the KCP&L Plaza Lighting Ceremony, a Kansas City tradition with 88 years of history that seems to grow in spectacle each year.

“(I wanted to invoke) the feelings of joy and wonder that the Plaza Lights experience gives Kansas City and its visitors each year,” Keeling said. “As a watercolorist, I wanted to bring something more emotional to the banner artwork. Of course it has to be about the lights first, but my depiction of them in watercolor hopefully captures the feeling more than a graphic design would.”

Reinventing himself

After a 25-year career with Hallmark, Keeling is now self-employed and offers commissioned works from his website. Transitioning to being his own boss has allowed Keeling to learn more about the Kansas City art culture— and himself.

“I’ve been reinventing myself as a painter for the past four years,” Keeling said. “As an art director and creative director at Hallmark, I wasn’t painting for work. I also didn’t get to know the art community outside of the workplace. There are multiple arts organizations, including ArtsKC and the InterUrban ArtHouse, that I’m now involved with and meeting more and more of the community.”

As Kansas City shoppers hurry to buy their last-minute gifts, the lights will shine on the Plaza and Keeling’s artwork until January 14.

Find out what fellow Jayhawks are up to in our biweekly edition of “In the News.” It’s like an online version of Class Notes.If you’ve seen Jayhawks in the news who should be featured, email us at share@kualumni.org.

After graduating in May of 2017, University alumna Savannah Rodgers became a producer on the project, “Out Here in Kansas.” The documentary revolves around the LGBTQ community and how it intersects with Christianity in Kansas.Read full article.

The University of Kansas Sport Management Program is thrilled to announce the inaugural Board of Directors. These eleven KU alumni will provide invaluable insight to the faculty and students as the program continually grows and adapts in a ever-changing sporting landscape.Read full article.

Marah Schlingensiepen-Malleck is a 2016 Public Affairs and Administration grad who is now a PhD Student at University of Florida. Following her time at KU, she is able to reflect on what she learned through her research and give advice of her own.Read full article.

By now, almost 10 full years after Mario’s Miracle and the Kansas men’s basketball team’s run to the 2008 national championship, many of the stories about that team, its tournament run and the title game against Memphis have been told.Read full article.

Doug Richmond, who earned a Juris Doctor from the KU School of Law in 1989, received the Alumni Achievement Award from Fort Hays State University during its Homecoming celebration. The award is the Alumni Association’s highest honor.Read full article.

Low-income, at-risk students will have a greater opportunity to graduate college in four years without crushing debt because of a new partnership between Kansas State University and the Peter and Veronica Mallouk Give Back Program. Peter Mallouk is president and chief investment officer of Creative Planning Inc., one of the largest independent wealth management firms in the country. A graduate of the University of Kansas and its Graduate School of Business, he and his wife, also a KU graduate, are co-founders of KC CAN!, an organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the quality of life of children in Kansas City.Read full article.

The Kansas City Chiefs created the position to oversee new business, renewals, activation and service for corporate partnerships, suites and media rights revenue streams. Kimberly Hobbs was hired to the new role of vice president of corporate partnerships and premium sales. She’s a 20-year veteran of the sports marketing industry and is also a member of the Greater Kansas City Network of the KU Alumni Association’s board of directors.Read full article.

Johnson County manager Hannes Zacharias on Sunday, Oct. 22, was recognized with the Edwin O. Stene Award for Managerial Excellence. The honor was given at the KUCIMAT banquet — a yearly KU alumni event hosted at the International City/County Management Association annual conference.Read full article.

Allen Frame ran for simple reasons. “Because I won,” he said. “That’s the reason I enjoyed it.” Frame won plenty of races at East High and the University of Kansas during a golden era of track and field. He moved to Wichita from Iowa, following his father’s job at Beech, for his final three semesters and joined Fritz Snodgrass’ track team at East.Read full article.

Wells Fargo Middle Market Banking announced today that it has promoted three executives within its Illinois commercial lending operations. The company named 21-year banking veteran Chris Nay to lead six teams statewide as division manager, effective immediately. Nay earned a degree from the KU School of Business in 1993.Read full article.

Former Kansas basketball guard Ryan Robertson, his wife Andrea — a former Missouri soccer player — and their three children are all Jayhawk fans. Robinson was unable to attend the charity exhibition game, but he shared his thoughts on the rivalry.Read full article.

Have you heard news about a fellow Jayhawk, or maybe you have news of your own to share? Email us at share@kualumni.org, or fill out our Class Notes form to be included in a future issue of Kansas Alumni magazine. Read more about newsworthy Jayhawks.

Find out what fellow Jayhawks are up to in our biweekly edition of “In the News.” It’s like an online version of Class Notes.If you’ve seen Jayhawks in the news who should be featured, email us at share@kualumni.org.

“Garfield: The Musical With Cattitude” opened Friday night and, even at the matinee show the following day, the actors, including alumna Brianna Woods, gave energized performances that would make you think it was opening night all over again.Read full article.

As one of the first American designers to challenge the boundary between utility and fine art, Wendell Castle creates an enticing breed of objects marked by superior craftsmanship and ingenuity in form, style, and technique. Castle, f’58, g’66, received an honorary degree from KU in 2013.Read full article.

Circuit Judge John Christian Yoder, whose work in law and politics spanned more than 40 years, including two terms in the West Virginia Senate, died Friday as a result of complications from heart surgery. He began a career in government service in his native state of Kansas and graduated from KU School of Law in 1975.Read full article.

NASA was slammed with a record number of astronaut applicants this year and out of more than 183,000 people, only 12 were given that proverbial golden ticket. The deserving dozen includes a Texan and University of Kansas graduate named Loral O’Hara.Read full article.

Peter Mallouk, c’93, b’93, l’97, g’97, an estate planning attorney, started his business with an eye toward servicing medical professionals in suburban Kansas City. Today the company, Creative Planning, is at the vanguard of a profound shift in finance.Read full article.

David Seely, l’82, was elected the new president of the Wichita Bar Association. He joined Fleeson, Gooing, Coulson & Kitch in 1984 and focuses on civil litigation, especially cases involving oil and gas.Read full article.

Philosophy majors spend their college years pondering deep questions, such as: What is the meaning of life? Do we have free will? And what job am I going to get with this degree after graduation? As chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Sheila Bair, c’75, l’78, leaned on her philosophy degree from the University of Kansas to make crucial decisions during the financial crisis.Read full article.

Nikki Glaser’s come a long way from her days as a reluctant college student at the University of Kansas. Eleven years after graduating with an English degree, Glaser’s back in Lawrence, this time as a headliner at the Free State Festival.Read full article.

The first couple to ever say “I do” in the new, upscale Taco Bell Cantina in Las Vegas, in a ceremony on Sunday, happened to be Olathe native Dan Ryckert and his beloved Bianca. Dan is a 2007 graduate of the University of Kansas.Read full article.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation recognized the third class of Woodrow Wilson Georgia Teaching Fellows, which includes KU graduate Justin Fairchild, g’13.Read full article.

Have you heard news about a fellow Jayhawk, or maybe you have news of your own to share? Email us at share@kualumni.org, or fill out our Class Notes form to be included in a future issue of Kansas Alumni magazine. Read more about newsworthy Jayhawks.

Joseph Ducreux’s painting “Le Discret,” one of the Spencer Museum’s iconic and most-popular paintings, will headline an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, beginning in May. This article was originally published in issue no. 2, 2017, of Kansas Alumni magazine.

Is he shushing noisy children, warning of dire political dangers, or something else? Even the title of Joseph Ducreaux’s “Le Discret” hints at ambiguity. Silence? Discretion? Shades of both?

Such range of content within an otherwise uncomplicated image helped establish “Le Discret,” which has been on near-continuous display at KU since it s951 acquisition, as an icon of the Spencer Museum of Art’s collection. Now it will take its charms to a larger audience as the headliner of “America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting,” an exhibition from May 21 to Aug. 20 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

“This work has a lot of personality,” says Susan Earle, the Spencer’s curator of European and American art. “It’s a great way to represent us, to share that Kansas is a place with a lot of interesting culture that people may not be aware of. That might just be a revelation to some people.”

As First Painter to Queen Marie Antoinette, Ducreux feared for his life during the French Revolution and fled for a time to London. Forced afterward to reinvent himself, Ducreux ventured beyond the norms of high-society portraiture by painting self-portraits that depicted expressions then rare in fine art: yawning, laughing, crying, mocking, shushing.

Earle describes the 1791 painting as a sort of 18th-century selfie, which helps explain Ducreux’s emergence as an internet superstar. The painter, who died in 1802, has two Twitter accounts and in 2013 won Reddit’s Tournament of Memes. “It hits that chord as a selfie in a way that others don’t,” Earle says. “This one somehow speaks to people.”

The retaining-wall mural behind the big apartment house on the northeast corner of 12th and Louisiana Streets, for years a popular visual respite for hill hikers ascending from downtown, is finally getting fresh paint and a new look.

Artist Ross Potter, who lives in the neighboring apartment house and is paying his rent by painting for the landlord, on Wednesday spray-painted the wall in a fresh base of sky blue, over which he added a fanciful Jayhawk and an emerging array of sunflowers.

“I’ve been painting flowers,” says Potter, a Hutchinson native who hopes to study art at KU in the fall, “all over Kansas.”

According to his sketched plans, the flowers will gently nudge passersby with a tender touch of wisdom:
“Don’t worry about all the answers, all at once.”
“R U”
“grow”
“ing”
“beautifully?”

Find out what fellow Jayhawks are up to in our biweekly edition of “In the News.” It’s like an online version of Class Notes.If you’ve seen Jayhawks in the news who should be featured, email us at share@kualumni.org.

Audiences all over the world saw the Kansas City skyline last year in “American Honey.” The film, which received six nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards — including Best Feature and Female Lead — stars actor Shia LaBeouf. Kansas City Film Commissioner Stephane Scupham, a 1999 graduate and University alumna, worked with the crew of “American Honey” for the duration of its stay in Kansas City.Read full article.

A documentary came out last year celebrating the life of that coach. “Fast Break: The Legend of John McLendon” was directed by University of Kansas film Professor Kevin Willmott who says McLendon is an American hero. In 1936, McLendon was the first black man to graduate from KU with a Physical Education degree.Read more and listen to podcast.

Plenty of people go back to school at a nontraditional age. But most of them don’t take classes for a doctorate at a school in which they are also a professor. Or while they are practicing law full-time. Or at the age of 72. But that’s exactly what Bruce Hopkins did when he decided to get an SJD at the University of Kansas School of Law, where he also serves as a professor from practice.Read full article.

The Center for Undergraduate Research highlights alumni accomplishments on their website. Rebecca Linwood, c’05, is featured this month. Linwood earned a degree in cell biology and is a senior scientist at Merck Animal Health.Read full article.

Nathan Muyskens, former Co-Chair of the White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigations Practice at Loeb & Loeb, joined the Washington, D.C. office of Greenberg Traurig. Muyskens earned a degree from the KU School of Law in 1995.Read full article.

Kayla Smalley sat down with Catina Taylor, co-founder of the V Form Alliance and founder of Dreams KC, to hear about her entrepreneurial journey in building a new tiny school in Kansas City. Taylor is a 1999 graduate of the KU School of Law.Read full article.

The New Orleans Pelicans have signed current D-League player and former Kansas star Wayne Selden Jr. The 6-5, 230-pound guard has averaged of 18.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.9 assists this season with the Iowa Energy.Read full article.

William “Bill” Hougland, former Kansas men’s basketball player and the first player in Olympic basketball history to win two gold medals, died March 6 in Lawrence. He was 86. Hougland, b’52, was a former member of the KU Alumni Association’s national board of directors.Read full article.

KU’s new School of Business building opened its doors last May—and it’s already received several awards and national recognition. David Broz, a’97, an architect for Gensler says while conceptualizing the building back in 2009, the country was in a recession—and staff wanted to bring nobility back to business.Read full article.

Have you heard news about a fellow Jayhawk, or maybe you have news of your own to share? Email us at share@kualumni.org, or fill out our Class Notes form to be included in a future issue of Kansas Alumni magazine. Read more about newsworthy Jayhawks.

Find out what fellow Jayhawks are up to in our biweekly edition of “In the News.” It’s like an online version of Class Notes.If you’ve seen Jayhawks in the news who should be featured, email us at share@kualumni.org.

Jessica Nelson, managing director of TeamKC: Life+Talent, helps tell the Kansas City story to young professionals in an effort to recruit them to the area. Nelson, j’11, is executive vice president of the Greater Kansas City Area alumni network.Read full article.

Sara Shepherd, the LJWorld’s education reporter, shares a number of tidbits from the Hill in her column, including some honors and awards. Four KU graduate students recently completed international research in their respective fields; a research project manager received the KGS Outstanding Support Staff Recognition Award; and KU received a $100,000 grant to help students pursue fieldwork in places like Wyoming and Turkey.Read full article.

Adrienne Rosel Bulinski, a motivational speaker and entertainer, will be the emcee for the 2017 Pancake Day Talent Show Feb. 25. Bulinski, j’05, is a Liberal native and former Miss Liberal, Miss Kansas. She currently lives in Denver.Read full article.

Jacob Burmood, a sculptor and 2013 University graduate in ceramics, recently received agrant from ArtsKC, a fund which makes grants to artists, arts organizations, and arts programs throughout the KC region, for his work with casting draped cloth into bronze. The grant gives him access to more of that bronze, a material that does not come cheap for most sculptors.Read full article.

Beginning this semester, the KU School of Business and the Business Analytics Club will present a monthly symposium on topics surrounding data analytics. The second symposium in the series will feature Ruben Sigala, b’97, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Caesars Entertainment Corp.Read full article.

Leawood-based Blooom raised $9.15 million in Series B financing, giving it the resources necessary to boost its marketing to reach more of its target audience of middle-class workers and grow even faster. Blooom CEO Chris Costello, b’95, told the Kansas City Business Journal that the $9.15 million gives the company plenty of time to prove that it has a business model that can grow.Read full article.

Students can now quickly and easily keep up with the actions of President Donald Trump, thanks in part to the work of a student here at the University. Peter Federman, who is working toward his Ph.D. in public administration, helped develop Track Trump, which is downloadable on smartphones and has a desktop version.Read full article.

Sixteen students, faculty and staff have been selected as University of Kansas Men of Merit, recognized for positively defining masculinity through challenging cultural norms, taking action and leading by example while making contributions to the university and/or the community.Read full article.

Two recent KU graduates, Austin Barone, b’16, and Lei Shi, e’05, PhD’17, were selected as part of Pipeline’s 2017 entrepreneurial fellowship class, announced at the Innovator of the Year event Jan. 26 in Kansas City. Both graduates’ startups were launched through The Catalyst, KU’s student business accelerator.Read full article.

The partners at McDowell Rice Smith & Buchanan PC elected Kristie Remster Orme as the first woman president in the firm’s history. Orme is a 19-year veteran of the firm, a member of its Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Banking & Financial Services groups. She earned a degree from the KU School of Law in 1997.Read full article.

Hissan Anis and Kate O’Hara Gasper were promoted to partner status at Lathrop & Gage, effective Jan. 1, 2017. Anis earned a degree from the KU School of Law in 2009; Gasper graduated in 2008.Read full article

Have you heard news about a fellow Jayhawk, or maybe you have news of your own to share? Email us at share@kualumni.org, or fill out our Class Notes form to be included in a future issue of Kansas Alumni magazine. Read more about newsworthy Jayhawks.

Find out what fellow Jayhawks are up to in our biweekly edition of “In the News.” It’s like an online version of Class Notes.If you’ve seen Jayhawks in the news who should be featured, email us at share@kualumni.org.

Ric Averill retired at the end of December as artistic director of the Lawrence Arts Center, where he worked for more than 16 years. But Averill, f’72, g’85, clarified that he’s not retiring from the arts.Read full article.

Former KU volleyball standout Sara Matthews was named head volleyball coach at the University of Delaware. Matthews, d’02, served the last two seasons as an assistant coach at TCU and has also previously served on the staffs at USC and West Virginia. She was a Jayhawk Scholar in 1999, and earned Big 12 All-Academic First Team honors in 2000.Read full article.

Kathleen Warfel, c’79, is among the three actors starring in Israel Horovitz’s My Old Lady, which opened Jan. 11 at Union Station’s H&R Block City Stage, who reminisced about their careers and shared tips for success.Read full article.

A year ago Austin Barone finished up a 21-hour semester, having crammed in enough hours to graduate in December. This year, his startup business, Just Play Sports Solutions, has clients nationwide. Barone, b’16, is a former kicker on the KU football team and credits The Catalyst, KU’s student business accelerator with helping boost his business.Read full article.Have you seen a story featuring a Jayhawk? Send it our way so we can include it in a future post! Email us at share@kualumni.org.

Have you heard news about a fellow Jayhawk, or maybe you have news of your own to share? Email us at share@kualumni.org, or fill out our Class Notes form to be included in a future issue of Kansas Alumni magazine. Read more about newsworthy Jayhawks.

Find out what fellow Jayhawks are up to in our biweekly edition of “In the News.” It’s like an online version of Class Notes.If you’ve seen Jayhawks in the news who should be featured, email us at share@kualumni.org.

Art has been central to Stacey Lamb’s identity since she was a child, and she went on to earn a degree in fine arts from KU and worked as a greeting card illustrator for thirty years. After a close friend was diagnosed with leukemia, she turned to art to deal with her emotions and help her friend.Read full article.

Former Topekan Walt Riker spent much of his career traveling the world, first as press secretary for Sen. Bob Dole and then guiding McDonald’s Corp. as its vice president of corporate communications. Riker, c’70, j’78, also served on the KU Alumni Association’s national board of directors.Read full article.

Amanda Angell, a 2015 graduate of the KU School of Law, recently joined Koley Jessen, a full-service business law firm based in Omaha. Angell was previously a compliance consultant for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.Read full article.

Donald J. Hall Jr. was awarded the Kansas City area’s highest honor for civic leadership at the 129th annual dinner of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. Hall, g’83, is the fourth member of the Hall family to receive the honor.Read full article.

KU Law School graduates Luke Hangge and Kyle Kitson have joined Littler Mendelson PC as associates in its employment and labor law practice. Hangge, l’16, served as a judicial intern for the U.S. District Court in Kansas City this past year. Kitson, l’13, was previously an attorney with two other firms in the Kansas City area.Read full article.

The Kansan got a chance to have a conversation with Hank Driskill, c’88, a technical supervisor for the film. Read as he discusses his Kansas beginnings, his work at Disney and “Moana.”Read full article.

Richard Rogers was a decorated war veteran, mayor of Manhattan, and member of both chambers of the Kansas Legislature. He graduated from the KU School of Law in 1947 and entered private practice.Read full article.

Una Nowling, e’93, g’93, was the keynote speaker for Trans Awareness Week, which was hosted by the Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity. She shared her experiences of her transition both in and out of her workplace in the STEM field with the audience.Read full article.

Damon Mitchell, a Kansas City native and 2000 graduate of the KU School of Law, was named chief deputy district attorney for Wyandotte County by the newly elected district attorney Mark Dupree.Read full article.

Have you heard news about a fellow Jayhawk, or maybe you have news of your own to share? Email us at share@kualumni.org, or fill out our Class Notes form to be included in a future issue of Kansas Alumni magazine. Read more about newsworthy Jayhawks.

Find out what fellow Jayhawks are up to in our biweekly edition of “In the News.” It’s like an online version of Class Notes.If you’ve seen Jayhawks in the news who should be featured, email us at share@kualumni.org.

Marlon Marshall, c’13, oversees the largest division of Clinton’s campaign and interacts with just about every other aspect of it. Officially, he’s the director of states and political engagement. A St. Louis native, Marshall is the most senior African American on either presidential campaign.Read full article.

Sarah Deer, a visiting law professor and alumna of the University, is part of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. She was diagnosed with breast cancer ten years ago at the age of 33 and was “sidelined” for a year.Read full article.

Brothers Ben and Jacob Burghart have created their own short-action films, which will culminate with the production of “Follow the Leader,” the duo’s first feature-length film. They recently started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the production process.Read full article

Marty Duvall, who earned a master’s of business administration degree from KU, was named chief executive officer and member of the board of directors of Tocagen Inc., a clinical-stage, cancer-selective gene company.Read full article

Two University alumni have ventured into the realm of Los Angeles entrepreneurship and a documentary series that follows the journey of entrepreneurs throughout the world. Tyler Reynolds, c’10, and Philip Ozorkiewicz,c’14, met when they were both upperclassmen at the University.Read full article

Mayra Aguirre will join the Hall Family Foundation in January as the new vice president and secretary, where she will build on her grant-making experience and community background. Aguirre earned a law degree from the University of Kansas.Read full article

The Polsinelli Transactional Law Center at the KU School of Law was established with $250,000 in gifts and pledges from 67 KU Law alumni and friends employed by Polsinelli- representing a 100 percent alumni participation rate.Read full article

Philip Anschutz, b’61, knew early in life that he was put on this earth to be a collector of businesses. When he was 10, he told his parents he would own the Broadmoor hotel one day—and in 2011 he finally acquired it.
Read full article.

The blog post features a conversation with Austin Barone, b’16 co-founder of Just Play Sports Solutions and former KU football player, who shares how a coaching staff can embrace smartphone usage in the locker room.Read full article.

Have you heard news about a fellow Jayhawk, or maybe you have news of your own to share? Email us at share@kualumni.org, or fill out our Class Notes form to be included in a future issue of Kansas Alumni magazine. Read more about newsworthy Jayhawks.